“We are formed by what we desire”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Don't forget this, too: Rumors aren't interested in the unsensational story; rumors don't care what's true.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“My dear boy, " Miss Frost said sharply. "My dear boy, please don't put a label on me - don't make a category before you get to know me!”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“He was one of those people things came easily to, but he did little to demonstrate that he deserved to be gifted.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“All I say is: Let us leave les folles alone; let's just leave them be. Don't judge them. You are not superior to them - don't put them down.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Most places we leave in childhood grow less, not more, fancy.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“You can learn a lot from your lovers, but-for the most part-you get to keep your friends longer, and you learn more from them.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Novels are just another kind of cross-dressing, aren't they?”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you will believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“It happens to many teenagers-that moment when you feel full of resentment or distrust for those adults you once loved unquestioningly.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“You live your life at the time you live it -- you don't have much of an overview when what's happening to you is still happening.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“It doesn't really matter who said it - it's so obviously true. Bevore you can write anything, you have to notice something.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“It is exhausting to be seventeen and not know who you are.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“...where our desires "come from"; that is a dark, winding road.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“...friends were more important than lovers - not least for the fact that friendships generally lasted longer than relationships.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“...there's a limit to enduring admiration being a substitute for love.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“I'll bet every fucking one of your angels is going to be terrifying!”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“That's okay," I said. "We're writers. We make things up.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“By '95 - in New York, alone - more Americans had died of AIDS than were killed in Vietnam.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Nostalgia!" Miss Frost cried. "You´re nostalgic!" She repeated. "Just how old are you, William?" She asked.
"Seventeen, " I told her.
"Seventeen!" Miss Frost cried, as if she'd been stabbed. "Well, William Abbott, if you're nostalgic at seventeen, maybe you are going to be a writer!”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“I'm just a woman with a penis!" she would say, her voice rising.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Of course, everyone is intolerant of something or someone.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“people can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“I'm sure I'll have more to say about the penis word.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Bill is a fiction writer, but he writes in the first-person voice in a style that is tell-all confessional; in fact, his fiction sounds as much like a memoir as he can make it sound.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“Why do you guys want to take all the mystery away? Isn't the mystery an exciting part of sex?”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
“You should wait, William," Miss Frost said. "The time to read Madame Bovary is when your romantic hopes and desires have crashed, and you believe that your future relationships will have disappointing - even devastating - consequences.”
― John Irving, quote from In One Person
John Irving
Born place: in Exeter, New Hampshire, The United States
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“ "When a cat greets you, he makes a big operation of it, bumping, stropping your legs, buzzing like mischief. But when he leaves, he just walks off and never looks back. Cats are smart.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, quote from Tunnel in the Sky
“An interesting thing happened today,” she said, giving me just enough time to get the word “hi” out of my mouth. “I opened the front door and there was a man on my doorstep. A big man. A very big, very black man.”
“Rachel —”
“You said it would be discreet. His T–shirt had the words ‘Klan Killer’ written on the front.”
“I —”
“And do you know what he said?”
I waited.
“He handed me a note from Louis and told me he was lactose intolerant. That was it. Note. Lactose intolerant. Nothing else. He’s coming to the reading with me. It was all I could do to get him to change his T–shirt. The new one reads ‘Black Death.’ I’m going to tell people it’s a rap band. Do you think it’s a rap band?”
I figured it was probably his occupation, but I didn’t say that. Instead, I said the only thing I could think of to say.
“Maybe you’d better buy some soy milk.”
She hung up without saying good–bye.”
― John Connolly, quote from The White Road
“What was the truth about the camera? he wondered.
Does the camera show the future?
Or does it actually cause bad things to happen?”
― R.L. Stine, quote from Say Cheese and Die!
“Seen under the microscope, Stegomyia is a creature of striking beauty. Its general color is dark gray, but the thorax is marked with a silvery-white lyre-shaped pattern; the abdomen is banded with silvery-white stripes and the six-jointed legs are striped alternately with black and pure white. Among mosquitoes Stegomyia is the height of elegance.”
― David McCullough, quote from The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
“Live every day like it's your last. Treasure the moments you have, and make sure you make them count.”
― Nicole Reed, quote from Ruining You
Thief
Wolfsbane
God Emperor of Dune
The Slippery Slope
The Bridge of San Lu...
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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